Inner City Press: Investigative Reporting from the United Nations

After KFC's Photo Op with UN's Treki, No UN Action on Parent Yum! Brands

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 26 -- In a breakdown of security in UN headquarters, a man off the street impersonating fried chicken magnate Colonel Sanders on behalf of KFC had a photo op with UN General Assembly President Ali Treki on October 22, before as Inner City Press first reported going to the UN Security Council stakeout microphone where Council Ambassadors speak.

The publicity stunt was carried out by KFC and its parent, Yum! Brands, which has a partnership with the UN World Food Program. On October 26, Inner City Press asked UN spokesperson Michele Montas what the UN system will do about being used by Yum! Brands. She said the Office of Legal Affairs is looking into it. But OLA chief Patricia O'Brien has refused to answer questions about past corporate uses of the UN and its name and logo, including in corporate press releases.

While the UN is saying that "an NGO" signed him in, and a security officer erroneously escorted him around, mistaking the white suited imposter as a visiting dignitary, Ali Treki has his own security detail, paid by the UN. How could Colonel Sanders get in?

UN's Treki and Col. Sanders, per KFC

Inner City Press on October 26 asked Treki's spokesman Jean Victor Nkolo:

Inner City Press: Jean Victor, I’m sorry this is one more on this whole “KFC-gate” situation. Is it… Can you, I mean, can you confirm that [inaudible] impersonator or advertising man actually met with the President of the General Assembly Treki and if so what does that say about his own security?

Spokesperson: I wouldn’t call that a meeting. There was no meeting, no appointment scheduled with the actor impersonating Colonel Sanders. But I can confirm that he, that Colonel Sanders was wandering about the second floor and there was a brief encounter with the President of the General Assembly. Yes. Any other question?

Inner City Press: On the Internet, there is a picture of the two of them shaking hands with the UN flag there, so have you seen this photo?

Spokesperson: I have seen these photos. I just cannot really add much on what Michele has already told you. The commercial exploitation of the UN emblem, and logos and flags is definitively unacceptable and, you know, the President of the General Assembly, somebody walked into his office and wanted to shake hands and he shook hands because he is a very polite man in a sense.

As Inner City Press was also first to report, Treki when asked called homosexuality -- and by extension homosexuals -- "not acceptable." Some now joke: but a photo op with Colonel Sanders is acceptable?

In terms of the UN standing up to corporations, at least those which openly abuse it, Inner City Press on October 26 asked UN Spokesperson Michele Montas:

Inner City Press: I’m wondering from, I mean, Kentucky Fried Chicken or KFC is owned by something called Yum Brands, a conglomerate. It actually has a kind of a partnership deal with the World Food Programme and puts out press releases saying we work with the World Food Programme obviously trying to advertise itself. What’s the UN going to do on it, because KFC also wrote a letter supposedly to the Secretary-General. Are you aware, they’ve put on their website a letter they claim…

Spokesperson Montas: I can tell you that the Secretary-General never received that letter.

Inner City Press: Okay.

Spokesperson: And, at any rate, that letter is void to us. It has absolutely no meaning whatsoever. The UN cannot be involved in a commercial venture, period.

Inner City Press: But then, so what are the repercussions for Yum Brands or KFC for having kind of used the UN somewhat effectively to advertise themselves.

Spokesperson: Well this is being, being touched upon by our legal department.

While under the previously UN administration, some fight back at corporations which used and abused the UN was undertaken and describe, now under OLA chief Patricia O'Brien, questions in this regard aren't taken or answered. Should KFC and Yum! Brands' taking things to the next level, openly making a mockery of the UN a la Ali G, be any surprise? Watch this site.

UN Sings For Its Supper as Sponsors Strut in Green Room, Pay for Play on UN Day

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 24 -- As the UN celebrated itself with a concert in the General Assembly Friday night, the sponsor it took $110,000 from lurked around trying to get pay-back.

On stage, UN peacekeepers were praised, even for their work in Rwanda. Across First Avenue, after an open photo op with the sponsors by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon had become untenable, or at least unsavory, Under Secretary General Ibrahim Gambari arrived in at the UN Millennium Hotel to take photos with the Chinese businessmen who paid money for access to the UN.

Still, this wasn't enough. Ban's pre-concert photo op, it emerged, had initially had three phases: artists, member states then sponsor. The last was officially cut out. But witnesses at the photo op, with the exception of the UN's organizer, tell Inner City Press that sponsor Frank Liu of the World Harmony Foundation and six of his associates still managed to get access.

In the green room behind the General Assembly rostrum, Inner City Press spoke with Frank Liu. He complained about being excluded. They come and ask you for money, he said, and then this. Without apparent irony, he said that he perhaps shared Inner City Press' desire to "reform the UN."

Head UN peacekeeper Alain Le Roy strode into the green room. He spoke with the director of the Culture Project, and with Mr. Frank Liu, to whom he had written in July offering a full tour of DPKO's 24 hour Situation Center, in exchange for sponsorship of the concert.

The UN, at the pre concert press conference, claimed that despite the wording of Le Roy's letter, there was no quid pro quo. The UN admitted that these same sponsors, the World Harmony Foundation, took photos with Ban Ki-moon after an event they paid for in March, but called the photos "ad hoc." These arguments wouldn't stand up in a New York City vice raid, or subsequent court appearance.

UN Day concert press conference, $ponsors' access not shown

Rather than reflect on how bad the March pay to play incident in the General Assembly lobby made the UN look, the UN decided to try to take Frank Liu's money without openly being dominated. So, for example, it told Liu he couldn't bring onto the stage or even in the building the harmony bell he stores, during the year, in a garage in Queens.

Lui, who complained to Inner City Press about this, had the bell brought to the Isaiah Wall across the street, and rang it along with personalities from South Korea. Take that, thirty eighth floor, was the message. Then USG Gambari made his appearance, ostensibly in a personal capacity, on the 29th floor of the UN Millennium Hotel. In the group's program, Gambari was listed as Deputy Secretary General, but Gambari later told Inner City Press this was "their fault," and Liu ascribed it to translation.

So the UN tried to be able to say they had taken Frank Liu's money without taking anything from him. But he and his associates were given passes into the UN, used the Delegates Dining Room, got access to the Green Room and the top UN officials. The staged denial or withholding of certain accesses and acts took on the flavor of the client or "date" negotiations often broken up on shows such as Police Women of Broward County. But who will go undercover and expose some current UN officials? Watch this site.

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As Israel Block Falk, Goldstone to the UN General Assembly, Democracy No Safeguard

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 23 -- As Israeli minister Silvan Shalom told the Press that the Goldstone report on Gaza should not even be at the UN in New York, sources tell Inner City Press that the report will go next to the full or plenary General Assembly, and not to its Third Committee on human rights.

Shalom came to the UN on October 23, met with Ban Ki-moon and then took question at the Security Council stakeout. Inner City Press asked for his response to the testimony, given the day previous in the human rights committee, of special rapporteur Richard Falk, who said Israel refused to let him into the country.

Shalom at the stakeout, Falk's entry to Israel not shown

Shalom answered, but not about not letting Falk in. Inner City Press noted that North Korea, too, didn't let its the rapporteur assigned to it by the UN. Shalom scoffed at the comparison, saying the Israel is a democracy. But so is Sri Lanka, also accused of war crimes. Democracy is no safeguard.

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UN Expert's North Korea Swan Song Questions UNDP and UNHCR, One Week Notice by WFP

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 22 -- After six years of reporting on North Korea, Vitit Muntarbhorn has had enough. He was never allowed into the country, only interviewed refugees who left. At the UN on Thursday, Inner City Press asked him if the UN's refugee agency is defending the rights of those who flee, especially to China.

Muntarbhorn was diplomatic, saying that is UNHCR's job, and that his mandate stops at the border. About the UN Development Program re-opening in Pyongyang, he said that UNDP would not -- as it did in the past -- pay for Kim Jong-il officials' foreign travel and training in the name of development. We'll see.

He described brutal prison conditions, and crackdowns on women who wear pants, leading to rare and courageous demonstrations. Unlike his counterpart on Myanmar Tomas Quintana, he had no problem saying that the money the government gets does not sufficiently go to the people. He said that abductees were not only Japanese, but also from South Korea and elsewhere.

Inner City Press asked Muntarbhorn what the Universal Periodic Review -- described by High Commissioner Navi Pillay as a jewel of the UN's human rights system -- could accomplish.

The outgoing rapporteur

Muntarbhorn called the UPR "middle pitch," saying there is also a need from some higher pitch name and shame reporting. His successor, he said, will need to study politics as well as human rights. He himself has another job in waiting, he told reporters are the end, without naming it. We wish him well.

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IMF Plays Ukraine, Zim and Pakistan As "Technical" Questions, Pushes Tax Hikes in Serbia

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 22 -- Are the International Monetary Fund's negotiations with countries about the level of taxes and salaries for public sector employees, the pricing of electricity and the privatization of social services political, or merely "economic and technical"? The questions arose Thursday in connection with Ukraine, Zimbabwe and Pakistan, among others, in the IMF's first press briefing since its annual meeting in Turkey.

IMF spokesperson Caroline Atkinson fielded questions for half an hour, leaving unanswered one submitted by Inner City Press about Serbia, where the IMF's Paul Thompson has been quoted that "if the Serbian delegation has a concrete pan for decreasing expenses, we will support it, if not, they will have to agree with us and think about increasing taxes." Left unanswered: how is raising taxes merely "technical"?

Ms. Atkinson did respond to Inner City Press' questions about Ukraine, Zimbabwe and Pakistan. While a full transcript is available online here, and video here, in sum the Q & A went as follows:

Inner City Press asked, In Ukraine, the opposition party is critical of the IMF as funding the campaign of Tymoshenko. What is the IMF's response to the opposition's criticism? Ms. Atkinson replied that IMF funds go to the central bank, and that the IMF has a team on the ground in Kiev for a third review.

The opposition was not, it seems, saying that money from the IMF is being used by Tymoshenko for advertisements or to pay poll workers, but rather "MP and opposition government's finance minister, Mykola Azarov, said this at a meeting with delegates of an IMF mission, 'We must say that the program of cooperation with the IMF has turned out to be ineffective, and nothing is left but to consider the IMF's assistance as politically motivated, as funding of one of the candidates running for the presidency.'"

When another reporter asked a follow up question about Ukraine, wondering if with the IMF mission on the ground, the upcoming election "is an issue," Ms. Atkinson said the IMF does not comment while a mission is in the field, negotiating a program, but that information -- and one hopes some questions and answers -- will be provided once the mission is completed

IMF points the way, in budgets... and politics?

On Zimbabwe, Inner City Press asked, "NGOs are critical of the IMF for, they say, pushing Zimbabwe to privatize its social services system. Has the IMF pushed for that, and how does it respond to the criticism?" Ms. Aktinson, while saying she can get back to Inner City Press with more information, argued that the IMF does not favor or disfavor particular privatizations, but must be pushing to strengthen the social service sector to help the poor.

But speaking just ahead of civil society's consultative meeting with an IMF team under Article IV of the Fund's Articles of Agreement, NANGO said "'we are opposed to some IMF polices such as privatization of basic social services. We know it from the past that some IMF policies have worked against people in this country. They have affected the social services sector and their polices are anti-people and negative'... [NANGO] said some of the IMF instigated polices which had brought suffering to the people were the Economic Structural Adjustment Programme (ESAP) and Zimbabwe Programme for Economic and Social Transformation (ZIMPREST)." It's a pretty specific critique, and we'll publish the IMF's response upon receipt.

Following up on Inner City Press' questions and article from August 2009, it asked "in Pakistan, the IMF in August extended for a year the country's time to eliminate electricity subsidies. Now, while the IMF says 2 price increases will be implemented, others say this is not possible politically. What is the IMF's thinking on consumer power pricing in Pakistan?"

Ms. Aktinson replied that "as I believe you know, the issue of issue of electric subsidy is typically done by the World Bank and Asian Development Bank," that IMF gets involved due to the budget."we will be having another review of the Pakistan program in early November." We'll be there....

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On Food Speculation, UN's Expert Says Nothing's Being Done, S. Korean Land Grabs from Madagascar to Sudan, Brazil on Ethanol

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 21 -- After many speeches at the UN about the need to crack down on financial speculation in food, nothing has been done, the UN's expert on the right to food told Inner City Press on Wednesday.

Olivier de Schutter, a Belgian law professor just back from a visit to Brazil about, among other things, the loss of land for food to ethanol, replied that "nothing is moving at the inter-governmental level." This despite a statement by the G-20 in April favoring the regulation of hedge funds which present systemic risk. The argument is that commodities index funds which speculate in food present systemic risk to net food importing countries. But nothing has been done.

De Schutter spoke about the monopolization of the seed industry, and made a slew of recommendations for governments. The three top monopolizers -- Monsanto, Dupont and the Swiss-based Syngenta -- are all members of the UN Global Compact, and claim to comply with human rights. De Schutter pointed out the antitrust law is directed as national and not global or subnational markets. It is all very heady but one wonders what effect it has.

Brazil might be one of de Schutter's claims to impact. He spoke glowingly of President Lula, saying that Brazil has said that only 19% of land can be used for sugar cane for ethanol, and has committed to monitor labor rights. But what about, for example, Indonesia and Malaysia?

De Schutter, action on food speculation not shown

After De Schutter's briefing, Inner City Press asked his staffer for an update on the proposed land grab in Madagascar by South Korea based Daewoo, which was reputed after the coup in that country. De Schutter had been scheduled to visit, but it was put off by the coup. The same thing happened in Honduras. So perhaps De Schutter does have an effect after all, mused one wag.

Footnote: immediately after De Schutter's briefing, the UN's Haile Menkerios was scheduled to speak to the Press about Madagascar. While the UN usually compartmentalizes its work such that a rapporteur looks at land grabs, while the Secretariat remains on "political affairs" narrowly defined, this land grab played a role in the change of government. Now it's said the South Korean deal is being pursued from India, while South Korea appears to have moved on to 690,000 hectares in Sudan. Watch this site.

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UN's Indigenous Expert Stymied in Russia, Does Not Engage in Myanmar, Will Visit Ecuador

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 19 -- Russia blocked the UN's expert on the rights of indigenous people from visiting the site slated for the Evenki dam in Krasnoyarsk Territory, it emerged at the UN on Monday.

Inner City Press asked James Anaya, the UN's Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedom of indigenous people, if he had in fact been allowed to visit the site. The Russian press had quoted Igor Kurtushin, deputy head of the territorial administration’s department for external relations that "it would not be easy to visit the Evenki sites due to peculiar weather patterns."

Inner City Press asked if Anaya had visit the contested site, from which indigenous people would be evicted. No, he said, it wasn't in the agenda we were able to negotiate. Video here, from Minute 30:53.

Was this, in fact, due to the weather, Inner City Press followed up. "The weather was good was I was there," Anaya answered, describing two flights in Krasnoyarsk and an outdoor meal of reindeer parts. Video here, from Minute 36:29.

This can be contrasted to Panama, where the government allowed Anaya to visit the site of a proposed dam. When Inner City Press asked about Ecuador and conflicts there, Anaya said he is going in December, invited by the government.

To some, Anaya seems too accommodating of governments. When Inner City Press asked about Canada's refusal to sign on to the Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous People, Anaya said Canada is moving in the right direction, that he doesn't criticize countries if there is the "possibility" of movement.

Likewise, when Inner City Press asked about the position of Botswana that nearly all people there are indigenous, Anaya responded that he hadn't seen a need to contest this position during his recent visit there. Given that the position almost derailed the Declaration, it seems strange to some to be so accommodative of it now.

Reindeer, UN's Anaya and Russia permit to visit not shown

But it is to and within the UN system that Anaya is most accommodative. Inner City Press asked about the UN's REDD program, which was protested earlier this month. Anaya said that the UN agencies want to address indigenous issues. When Inner City Press asked about indigenous people in Myanmar, Anaya responded that since there is another rapporteur on Myanmar, he does not engage in Myanmar. Video here, from Minute 49:22.

First, this deference is not required: for example, the UN's expert on children and armed conflict engages with Myanmar, rather than deferring. Particularly given the issues that have arisen about the UN's special rapporteur on Myanmar, for Anaya to say he'll do nothing in or about the country ill-served indigenous people. Watch this site.

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As France is Asked about Evictions in Calais and Chad, UN Cuts Off Questions, Jumps for Kouchner

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 19 -- In his first media availability at the UN, new French Ambassador Gerard Araud marked the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty with a press conference on October 19.

Inner City Press asked Ambassador Araud about his country's eviction of immigrants from a camp near Calais last month, about the drowning of residents of the Comoros trying to get to the French island of Mayotte, and about mass evictions in the capital of Chad, where the Idriss Deby government receives substantial French support. Video here, from Minute 25:32.

Ambassador Araud said immigration is an issues throughout the developed world, quickly equating the drowning of those seeking to get to Mayotte with deaths of African in the Mediterranean.

He said that the "dismantling" of the camp was because immigration should be restricted to that which is legal, so that Europeans don't "become violent." He said it was fair to be critical, he has seen such criticism of U.S. policies as well, but these countries are democracies.

Araud said that "answering about Chad is the easiest," and then proceeded to say that his Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, the moment he got the post, took in the lead is setting up peacekeeping mission in Eastern Chad, first through the European Union and then the UN.

A follow-up question was cut off by the UN's moderator, Rachel Mayanja. She said, "before we proceed... I am surprised none of you want to take advantage" of the boy on the panel, from Dominica, to "expose his journey." Video here, from Minute 31:55. But she had begun by saying that the youth would be accompanied by a chaperrone from ChildFund Caribbean, who was not on the podium.

After a more compliant correspondent dutifully asked the boy about photography -- ChildFund saved him from being a criminal, he equally dutifully said -- Inner City Press asked Ambassador Araud about the evictions done by French ally Idriss Deby, did he have any answer? He shook his head no. And the press conference was over. Video here, from Minute 34:49.

Afterwards, one of the French journalists opined that Ms. Mayanja may have been trying to protect or please France, a Permanent Five member of the Security Council, by shifting from questions about France's record to what she wanted journalists to ask and write about. This has become more prevalent at the UN.

France's Gerard Araud at the UN on Monday, Chad eviction answers not shown

We note that Ms. Mayanja's cutting off of questions cannot necessarily be ascribed to Araud. The UN may offer protection where none is even requested. If Ms. Mayanja wanted to play up the boy's story, why have him appear at the French Ambassador's first press conference?

Another reporter told Inner City Press that Bernard Kouchner called Ban Ki-moon recently and told him the UN should launch an investigation of the recent killing of some 150 protesters in Guinea Conakry. Ban did just that; when Inner City Press asked, his spokesman said that it was at the request of ECOWAS. But why didn't the UN launch any inquiry into the tens of thousands of civilians killed in Sri Lanka earlier this year?

Just as the UN on Monday sought to limit questions to the right kind of poverty, it will only investigate the killings of the right victims: it all depends on who the perpetrator is, and who provides protection.

Footnote: also on the Chad evictions, Inner City Press asked this question last week to Habitat's New York representative, and for an update on what if anything Habitat did to follow up on supposed commitments by Angola not to continue evictions. Video here. A response was promised, but has not been received. What was that again, about eradicating poverty?

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At UN, Iran's Mottaki Says Protesters Are Dealt With, Nuclear Sites All Reported

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 1 -- In Iran "there are some people, a limited number of people, who look for trouble and want to create unreal," Iranian foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki told the Press on Thursday. "It is very clear how they should be dealt with." Video here, from Minute 31:55.

During a Q&A session at the UN in New York, nearly all of which dealt with nuclear issues, Inner City Press asked Mottaki about a story of post-election torture, rape and exile, which Inner City Press heard from Ebrahim Sharifi by cell phone on September 21. Sharifi states that he joined the non violent street protests then was picked up, blindfolded and held for a week.

Inner City Press asked Mottaki if he acknowledged the veracity of any such charges, if people can file complaints in Iran and what he thinks of the call for a UN General Assembly special envoy to Iran on human rights issues. Video here, from Minute 25:43, Mottaki's reponse here from Minute 27:08.

Mottaki's more then five minute answer became with calling the June elections "the most glorious presidential elections in the history of the Islamic Republic of Iran." Mottaki claimed the skeptics, once they received an explanation, were convinced. This left a few trouble makers -- "it is very clear how they should be dealt with."

UN's Ban, Ahmadinejad, Motakki and Zarif, pre election violence

Mottaki said that Iran has vibrant NGOs, which rather than complain in Geneva to the Human Rights Council come to the UN in New York to participate in workshops about the rights on women.

On Iran's nuclear program, Mottaki said that other than Qom, there are no other sites not reported to the IAEA. The press conference ended with a report for a newspaper in Israel calling for the floor, without receiving it. He was told by the UN's spokesperson that the UN is an "inter-governmental body... we cannot do anything about what member states do." Apparently not.

Footnote: Mottaki, before traveling to DC, wiled away the evening of September 29 at Indonesia's Independence Day celebration in the UN Delegates' Dining Room. There were satays, rice and noodles. One attending, chewing, snarked that at such receptions, the quality of the food is in inverse proportion to the amount of democracy in the hosting nation.

Inner City Press has previously written about, and sampled, Iran's kebab diplomacy, click here for that. Seven thousand years of culture...

These reports are usually also available through Google News and on Lexis-Nexis.

Click here for a Reuters AlertNet piece by this correspondent about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click here for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali National Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an undefined trust fund. Video Analysis here

Other, earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available in the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.

Inner City Press -- Investigative Reporting From the Inner City to Wall Street to the United Nations